Saturday, April 12, 2014

Palm/Passion Sunday - It Wasn't Supposed to End Like This- Or Was It?

Just five days ago, they crowded around him, cheered into him as he rode into town triumphantly. Crowds waving palms and shouting, as the prophet Zechariah foretold:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)

Now five days later they are now they were scattered and silent at this unexpected end of his journey.

One by one they had abandoned him:

Judas leaving their final meal together, leaving early to betray him.

The rest of them running for their lives from the garden where he was arrested.

Peter, following to the high priest’s house, but denying he was a disciple

Now just a few are remain with him as he hangs on the cross,

The women standing, at the foot of the cross,

with his mother Mary,

and the disciple Jesus loved-

some say this was John, some say Lazarus.

Imagine Mary’s pain watching her son die-

every parent who’s lost a child knows that pain.

She wishes it was her instead of him,

each stroke of the hammer driving the nails into his hand, his feet,

-the trusting hand she held, the baby feet she kissed -

was a sword piercing her to her very soul.

The women there share Mary’s a pain.

This is a woman’s lot -to stand watch in the dying hours,

to wash and prepare him for burial.

A bit further away are the chief priests and religious leaders,

witnessing this death, satisfaction on their faces.

They have done their duty -

the threat to the faith and the people is dying on that cross.

Joseph of Arimathea is with them,

Nicodemus is there too,

their faces saddened and puzzled.

It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

One by one, the disciples (except for Judas)

made their way back to the upper room,

an ordinary room now sacred to them

because it’s the last time they shared a meal with him,

It was their last happy hours together.

Peter, comes in last.

He’s unusually quiet,

remote.

They don’t know he’s filled with shame

filled with guilt.

They begin to talk.

He said he was going to the Father’s house

to prepare a place for them (John 14:1-6),

- surely dying on a cross was not what he meant,

was it?

Could it be?

He said he would come back and take them to the place prepared for them.

About Me

Standing at the crossroads of marriage, motherhood, mid-life and ministry. I am wife of 21 years, mother of two teen-agers, and a pastor in my very first call. I happily claim again the title "Jesus Freak" which I once claimed in my teens. I not-so-happily acknowledge that mid-life is staring me in the face!
I am just a disciple following in the footsteps of the Master. This blog is my musing and reflections on my walk. I pray that other pilgrims on this journey will be inspired by my rambilngs - or at least amused by them!